Travellers flying out of Duesseldorf airport in Germany no longer have to worry about valets taking their cars for a joyride before they're parked. A robot valet nicknamed Ray starts work today, and he'll automatically deliver cars to a set of designated spots without even having to start them.

Ray doesn't even need to enter the vehicle, because it actually works as a large forklift that's capable of lifting vehicles up to 3.3 tons in weight. Travellers just park their car in a designated pickup spot, use a smartphone app to indicate it's ready to go, and the robot will automatically deliver it to one of 249 designated spaces for the service.

Advertisement

At around $40 a day the service isn't the cheapest solution, particularly for travelers leaving the country for a couple of weeks. But for business folk who will only be gone a day or so, leaving your car with a robot probably provides a little more peace of mind, especially since you get to keep your car keys and not worry about things in your vehicle going missing. [Yahoo News via Ubergizmo]